The Royal Navy is set to lose its ability to fly combat jets off aircraft
carriers for the next 26 years under defence cuts to be announced today, The
Daily Telegraph has learnt.

Navy chiefs are furious that despite winning the battle to keep the two 60,000 ton carriers they will not be fully operational until 2036 under plans announced in the Strategic Defence and Security Review.

They have warned that the Government’s decision to axe the entire fleet of 44 Harrier jump jets within the next 12 months means that Britain will fall behind the French, Spanish and Italian navies.

While Ministry of Defence planners claim that the “capability gap” will only be a few years Navy insiders insist it will take 16 years to fully reconstitute the Fleet Air Arm from the time the first Joint Strike Fighters arrive for the new carriers in 2020.

The move will essentially mean the end of the Fleet Air Arm, the world’s oldest air force, for at least a decade although a few pilots will continue training with the US Navy to try and retain the skills of carrier landing.

It had been hoped that the Navy might lease some US F18 Super Hornets for the new £5 billon carriers but these plans have also been shelved and the carriers will be used for helicopter or humanitarian operations.

The move will mean an “enormous loss of influence and respect” to Britain as the Navy “is one of the few in the world that has carrier strike,” a senior Navy source said.

“This did put us in the top echelon next the US and French but it now means that even Italy and Spain will have a great capability than the Royal Navy.

“The point that people are missing is that they think landing on an aircraft carrier is likie parking your car in the NCP. In fact it’s a highly complex operation needing great skill from both pilots and ground crew.”

Another serving Navy commander said it would be “politically unacceptable” to build carriers without any jets.

“We would become a laughing stock. How can you send an aircraft carrier to sea without aircraft? I think that future history will show the rashness of this decision.”

Navy commanders have pointed to the experience of Russia that has struggled for years to regain its carrier operations after giving them up in the 80s. Despite its financial resources and years of training China is still struggling to field a carrier based squadron which is now not expected to be in service until 2020.

Commodore Steve Jermy, former head of the Fleet Air Arm who flew Harriers in the Falklands war, warned that the ships and troops would be dangerously exposed by withdrawal of the jets.

“I think Liam Fox has been badly briefed. Without this capability both ships at sea and marines ashore will be very vulnerable. This is quite a gamble.

“Once these carrier skills have gone they will take at least 16 years to build back up.”

He added that at least 50 servicemen had been killed on airfields in Iraq and Afghanistan but “no one has died on an aircraft carrier since 1945.”